I've wondered about Rodin's famous sculpture. Is he engaged in deep thought or sitting around wasting time? And why isn't he wearing pants? I ask the same of myself. Here we comment on well, mostly politics. Or we may just sit! If you like it, tell a friend. If not, tell us, but please read the GROUND RULES before you do.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

So, Chimpy McFlightsuit is going to commemorate four years of celebrating Mission Accomplished with his veto pen. It's the one he's only pulled out to support his Culture of Life by preventing scientists from doing research that could save lives and now, by refusing to consider ending the occupation of Iraq by US forces. He has said, many times, that he won't agree to anything with a timetable in it, and this weekend, he sent his Secretary of Hate out to the talk shows to explain that he also wasn't interested in requiring anything of the Iraqi "government":Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that President Bush will reject any attempt by Congress to require the Iraqi government to meet benchmarks as a condition for US troops remaining in Iraq...

The president and the administration are still prodding the Iraqi government to meet its goals for political progress and quelling sectarian violence, but the Bush camp does not want deadlines for them to be enshrined into law, she said.

"The benchmarks that are anticipated here, of course, [are] benchmarks that the Iraqis themselves have adopted. They are benchmarks that they need to meet," Rice said on CNN's "Late Edition." "We are telling them all of the time that their national reconciliation is moving too slowly [and] needs to move more quickly."

Now, this is an administration that doesn't believe in consequences or planning, so it's quite natural for them to decide that the Iraqi "government" should play no role in anything as trivial as getting our soldiers home and ending the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars into a giant black hole. And the Iraqis themselves are planning on taking July and August off (hey, just like ol' President Ranchhand!). The combined lesson, of course, is that neither the Bush administration nor the Iraqi "government" seems to have any interest in ending the occupation.

If you would like a little reflection on the costs of this disaster, the Democrats in the Senate have put together a little interactive map, showing the number of men and women from each state currently serving in Iraq, the number who have been killed, the number who have been wounded, and the cost of the war (in dollars) attributable to that state.

For example, here's the data from Illinois:

* Number of Active Duty Service-Members in Iraq: 7,124 * Number of Reserve Forces in Iraq: 1,449 * Number of Service-Members Killed in Iraq: 120 * Number of Service-Members Wounded in Iraq: 934 * Cost of War to the People of Illinois: $20.5 billion

I'm sitting in an Internet cafe just above the Mykonos windmills, just after sunset. My wife just left, staying in Athens tonight and headed home tomorrow, while I'm kicking around Athens for a couple of days.

Been TOTALLY out of touch, what's new in the world? Be home Sat.

Some observations:

1) There is not a highway to hell. You do not go to hell in a handbasket. If you are going to hell, you go through Charles DeGaulle airport in Paris. My God, they should just blow that disaster up and start over.

2) Americans should not be allowed to leave the country. Period. We're dicks. God I hate it when I see Americans making asses out of themselves expecting everything to be like it is at home. If you want home--stay home.

3) It is amazing how different (and wonderfully refreshing) the international press is on TV.

One of the positive outcomes from someone's death can be a reflection on what they did that benefited the world. Such is the case with Kurt Vonnegut, whose words continue to teach.There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.

Well, it seems that Mr. Connie Miskimen is a lawyer who apparently enjoys wasting people's time (I wonder what he would do if the world billed him for his time) by writing stupid letters to the editor to see if they will get published. Well, he has proven that the editors at the newspaper were either idiots or pranksters.

Monday, April 30, 2007

You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two.

This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they ?

Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects.Connie M. Miskimen, Hot Springs (Thanks to Bartcop for the image.)

Where do I begin, oh Connie M. Miskimen? Is it with the typo in the title? Or that the bill changing when Daylight Savings Time would start was passed by the previous Congress, which was controlled by Republicans? Or, perhaps, that you have somehow imbued our Congress with the ability to actually change the rate at which the Earth rotates, thus adding an extra hour to the day? I mean, really, why didn't Congress give us that extra hour in the fall, so that it doesn't get so cold?